Lake Emily Memorial Weekend Camping part 1

Whoever would've believed that I would enjoy camping?
Well I live in a family of all guys so I am rollin' with it.
Of course Lake Emily has flushing toilets and normal showers so it isn't exactly roughing it.

This place is wonderful. We spent 4 days and 3 nights of outdoors fun in the sun. The weather was picture perfect (except for the thunderstorm Sunday night). It was 80's during the day and full sun and mid 50's overnight.

David and Caleb made great strides in overcoming their fears in the water. The lake is so clean even Caleb wasn't concerned about fish in the lake. Nathan enjoyed the lake too but mostly he liked the sand.

David got to play the part of hero this weekend too. Now I am not sure why these things happen to John but he has once again been the first responder and caller to 911 for a stranger. (In the last few years it has been a bicycle/car accident, a pedestrian/car accident, an auto fire - which John put out himself and a couple others) Now this time he is with David.

David and John decide to go to the pop machine for a soda. They walk to the first machine but then decide to go to the other one clear across the campgrounds. While standing at the machine, John looks over and sees 2 feet hanging out of the bathroom/changing area. He and David walk over and discover a young 20 something man lying on the cement floor unconscious. John calls out "You OK?" no response. So he checks and the man is breathing. John tilts his head back to open the airway better and calls 911. While on the phone he instructs David that he will have to flag down the ambulance. This isn't exactly a main street and the ambulance is going to be wondering where it needs to be. David kept his cool and when the sirens came, he flagged the ambulance over. We don't know what became of the man but David and John sure got more adventure than they bargained for on their way to the pop machine.

Nathan's heart

Yet another heart checkup for Nathan. We took him for his 6 month Echo cardiogram and consult last Friday. His levels are still the same, no change. He is still hanging out in the severe levels but his heart ventricles have not been thickening to compensate for the pressure. That is good news.

The echo cardiogram pictures are showing us a more accurate look at the makeup of his aortic heart valve. His case has been sent over for review to the children's heart intervention clinic. It is not clear at this time if his heart valve would perforate correctly from the balloon valvulopasty. So his ultrasounds will be reviewed by more specialists. That wasn't what I wanted to hear but I will sit tight and wait on the Lord for that.

Because Nathan has been at these levels for some time the pediatric cardiologist felt it was time to get a 24 hour EKG. So on Friday we were sent home with Nathan wired with a portable EKG machine.

I didn't think he would handle this well, but we told Nathan he could be like a robot (super powers) and he tolerated it pretty well. We will not know the results of this test for a week or two, maybe three.

David and Caleb will also have an appointment in June for Echo cardiograms to screen them for the same defect. Just in case either or both have the same problem but not enough to hear thru a stethoscope.

Here is a picture of Nathan as a robot. (The sticker of James from Thomas is the actual size of the EKG digital recorder isn't modern medicine amazing!)

video of whale watching

The 1st one is farther away the last 2 are great clips of just how close they were - so close they touched the boat and got people wet when they surfaced. Absolutely amazing I tell you just breath taking to be that close.

Caleb's 5 year checkup

Ok classic Caleb Baierl moment. We go to Dr for his 5 year checkup. This is the first time he has to have his eyes checked because he is about to enter kindergarten. The nurse asks Caleb if he knows his letters. He says yes like DUH! of course I know my letters. I can read!

She asks him to stand by the tape on the floor. Then she points to the row of letters that is for 20 X 20 vision and asks:
"Can you read this line?"
Caleb: "Yes"
Nurse: "What is this letter?"
Caleb: "D"
Nurse: "Ok, this next one?"
Caleb: "C"
Nurse chuckles:"Ok this one, this one, this one" etc
He said only the minimums to her questions.

So this proceeds about like pulling teeth, slow and painful.

Then he asks to have him cover his right eye.
Nurse:" Can you read this line?'
Caleb:"Yes"
You would have thought she would have learned to rephrase the question like "read this line for me please."

So this goes on and then it is cover the other eye.
Nurse again:"Caleb,can you tell me this letter?"

Caleb:" Still D"
Like What? Is it supposed to change?

Well I think it is sufficient to say that he can see just fine.

As a side note Caleb is in the 38 percentile for height and 78 percentile for weight. David's about to get a rude awakening. He may be the oldest brother but he isn't going to be the biggest for much longer. Caleb is solid and it is only a matter of time before he is stronger than his big brother. Solid muscle and a man of few words - hmm wonder who he gets that from?

Cape Cod Trip

John won a trip for 2 to Cape Cod from his employer for inspiring excellence during 2009. Along with about 30 other couples we flew out to Boston and were driven to Chatham resort on the Cape.

For 5 days we had no children and virtually no expenses. John's employer treated us to the nine. Lobster, swordfish, mignon, open bar etc. All at a 5 star resort which included excursions (we went whale watching on the Atlantic). I was so elated that the Scopaline patch worked and I had no seasickness at all. Good thing too because we had a stellar day on the ocean.

We saw many whales, so close they touched the boat and people got wet from their spray. It was really breath taking. John took some incredible video I hope to post here soon.

We danced the night away to a terrific 8 man band

and even got to dust off our 2 step dancing. (Been awhile for us)

It wasn't tropical weather but the cape was beautiful.

Congratulations to John for inspiring excellence and

allowing me to tag along on a trip to remember.

Mother's Day

So I get my Mother's Day homemade cards from the kids. (and flowers)
Nathan runs up and says I made a picture for you!!!!!!!
Caleb wrote his own card for me and colored it my favorite colors.
David's card says Happy Mothers Day - What's for Dinner? (I kid you not)

Then at the breakfast table I took my seat and was served my cherrios. That was nice.

Nathan asked for cherrios too and chocolate milk. I said yes but stayed seated as John got it.
So Nathan looked at me and asked again for chocolate milk. I said yes ok, but stayed seated.
He asked again for chocolate milk. I said yes (John was getting it) but stayed seated.
Then Nathan confused said "get up and get it then!" I laughed and said no Dad is getting it for you this morning. LOL

Caleb's 5th Birthday

Caleb had a great 5th birthday. We celebrated Ben 10 style.

Several times during his birthday I flashed back to our crazy 100+ mile an hour drive to the hospital. Thank you John for getting me there on time. We could have literally had him in the van.

His birth is just like Caleb's personality too. When he decideds to do something, he does it with full force and right now. I rather like that about Caleb. He is a go getter.

Jelly fish video from Spring break

Video of 2 of the 10 jellyfish exhibits during our spring break trip to Newport Ky that aqaurium was amazing!